Typewriting machine



S. H.. FARNHAM 1 J'TYPB'WRITING MACHINE March 30 1926.

Filed Feb. 2'7, 1924 2 Sheets-Shea"v I l/ I II I I II II I I I I l l l I Patented Mar. 30,1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEPHEN H. FARNHAM, OF BROQKL YN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TOREMINGTON TYPE- WRITER COMPANY, OF ILION, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF 'NEW YORK.

TYPEWBI'I'ING MACHINE.

Applicationjled February 27, 1924. Serial No. 695,420,

To all whom it may concern:

'Be it known that I, STEPHEN H. FARN- HAM, citizen of the United States, and resident of the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented'certain new I and useful Improvements 1n Typewr tmg Machines, of which the following is a speci-" fication. p I

'My invention relates to typewriting machines, and has for its object to provide a code system which is particularly adapted for use in such machines.

.To the above and other ends which will hereinafter appear my invention consists in the features of construction, combinations of devices, and arrangements of partshereinafter described and particularly pointed outintheclaims. v' v l I In the accom anying drawingswhich'illustrate the pre erred form of my invention,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of :1 Remington typewrlting machine '5 of the'machine- (Fig.2) -;has pivoted on embodying said invention, the view showing the keyboard and type bar system of the machine. ,7

Figure 2 IS a front-to-rear vert cal sectional view illustrating one of the type bar actions of the machine.

Figure 3 is a planview of the keyboard diagrammatically illustrated. C

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of several type bars and their type blocks. 7

Figure 5 shows various spellings ofa name with its code, illustrating certain of on the. face o the advantages of the invention.

The coding machine shown herein while adapted for various uses was particularly designed with special characters for 'useby insurance and bonding companies to code the names of the insured, the references, and all other roper names that are written i the cards with which correspondence or business is usually initiated. Large concerns doing insurance and bonding business, and other concerns employing in their work a card system, have frequently they find it in some instances difficult to locate desired cards under filing systems now .em loyed based on the old principle of the alp abetical index. By 'such systems variations in spelling; of the same name are widely separated. For example, apphcants -name, which may be spelled applicant spells it, Farnham, or, as is sometimes the case, Farnum, or .Farnam, might have the variants widely separated under oldsystems. It has been proposed heretofore to simplify and improve alphabetical 'systhe purpose of mypresent invention I make use of one of the improved systems, providing each plurality or set oficharacters with a distinguishingor identifying characteristic which is typewritten at the same time as the character, thus automatically coding the word or name when it is written on the v.typewriting machine. i My invention will be specifically described in connection with, the drawings...- As illustrated in Figure 1, the, main frame ofthe. Remington typewrrting .machi'ne comprises abase 1, posts 2, and j,atop plate 3 at the forward side of which is. disposed a frame plate 4. The type bar supporter segment ing adapted to be swung upward and rearward into, co-operative contact with the platen. The type bars are guidedin their movements in radially arranged slots .10 cut in the lower portion of the segment-5. The heel portion of each type bar is pro- .vided with a cam slot 11 which is engaged by an actuating pin 12 projecting laterally from the upstanding arm of abell crank 13' having a stationary pivot 14 and pivotally connected at 15 with an upward projection 16 on a key lever 17. The set of key levers is horizontally disposed, each being fulcrumed at its rear at 18' and thence extending forward, terminating in a stem 19 which is provided with a key cap or button 20. As .will be. seen from Figure 4:, there are four rows of caps or keys 20 constituting the d keyboard, the stems 19 being of different heights so that the rows are in steps or banks, as is well understood. The keyboard is contained within the forward portion of the base frame 1 which is made. rectangular in shape for the purpose. When anyone of the keys 20"is depressed -it will, through the described train of connections compris ing the key lever 17 the connected bell crank- 13 and actuating pin 12, swing the type bar 7 on its pivot and cause one or'the other of the types at itsfree end to co-act with the platen. Normally the platen is in what is termed lower case position, and the lower case types of the type bars will print through the usual ribbon. WVhen the platen is shifted and maintained in shifted position, an actuation of one of the type bars will cause its upper case type to print. The lower case types t are the inner types on the bars or those closest to the type. bar pivots the upper case types t being the outer types, .(Fig. 4). i

For purposes of complete illustration I have shown in'Figure 1 the full keyboard of the machine as represented by the key caps or buttons 20 and in a few instances have shown the characters on the tops of the key caps. These characters, it will be understood, correspond throughout with the full set of characters shown in Fig. 3, where in the diagram of each key is designated as21. It is however further to be understood that while I have preferred to make the actual key capscorrespond with the diagrammatical illustration in Figure 3, this is. not essential, as if'desired the characters ordinarily placed on the standard keyboard may be employed. Figure 1 also illustrates the fullset of type bars of the machine with their typeiblocks, the keys 20 being shown as connected with their associate type blocks by dotted lines (Z. These lines it may be assumed. as representing diagrammatically theactual physical connections or trains of devices between the keysland the type bars, one such train being shown in Figure 2.

In the index system to'whichI have adapted my invention, lower case b not only represents but also 7, p and 1) as Well; while lower case 0 represents 0, g, j, 70,9, 8, a: and a; (Z represents d and t; Z represents itself; m represents m and n; and 1' represents itself; Thus sets or pluralities of characters are grouped or separated. The vowels, as well as w and h, are disregarded. In adapting this index system for use in the typewriting machine, I provide the'same identifying characteristic for each separate set or plurality of letters aforesaid.

lVhile of course various identifying characteristics may be employed, I have preferred to use for the purpose, numerals which are placed in relation to the letters as exponents. Thus the group or set of char- 'acters 6, f, p and 'v are each provided with ondistinguished by the'numeral or exponent 1', the second set or group C,'f/, j, Iraq, a, a: andz are each distinguished by the exponent 2, the members of the third set or group at and t are distinguished by the exponent 3, the Z is distinguished by the ex- 'filed under the name of the ponent 4; the fifth set comprising in. and n are distinguished by the exponent 5, and the 1* is distinguished by the exponent (3. This will perhaps be more clearly understood from an inspection of Figure 3, which may be taken as not only illustrating the keyboard diagrammatically but also as showing-the characters in the same relationships substantially as those in which they appear on the type blocks of the type bars. It will be seen that the lower case letters of the first group are each provided on their type blocks with the numeral or exponent 1, while the lower case letters of the other five groups are successively provided with the numbers or exponents 2, .3, 4, 5 and 6. In

consequence, whenever one of the lower case letters of these groups. is actuated in the course of writing, not only will the lower case character beprinted but concurrently the exponent associated. with it will be printed, so that if a word be written comprising a number of these distinguished lower case letters, there will automatically be printed in a line above them the distinguishing exponents or code.

Some of the advantages of'this novel coding system will be appreciated from a consideration of Fig' 5, whichshowsapphcants name Farnham and" several 'common variants of it, as "Farnum and Farnam. It will be seenthat eachvone of these names is identifiedor distinguished by the same code,}namely, 655, which appears in the line above the letters. Thus the common .index or code for all these names would be F (the initial or capital letter of the name, which is always employed), and 655.

This contrasts with indexing under the old alphabetical system in which these names or variants'would be widely separated. Thus my invention provides for automatically coding names variously spelled so as to concentrate under one heading or code and inone place, all of. the varied spellings of the name. Moreover, the human element is eliminated and the liability of error reduced by doing away with the necessity of memorizing the groups or sets and relying instead'on a distinguishing mark for each set.

When my invention is employed, a card prepared in accordance with it might be person insured or bonded, as well as, say, under the, maiden name of his mother, and also the town he was born in, so as to sub-classify the cards of common names with the same spelling.

For example, taking a name frequently occurring, such as-John Smith,

tion. There would then be three rows of indexes for running down a John Smith,

thus providing an index so classifiedas to facilitate the prompt location or finding of any individual card, while the filing of the cards would be much simpler than filing them under a mere alphabetical index would be.'

It will be observed by the present invention there is provided a code system adapted for use in typewriting machines and embodying a set or plurality of characters or types having different characteristics but provided each with a similar identifying characteristic. More specifically the types, or in the present case the type bars of the typewriting machine, are provided with a plurality of sets of characters each distinguished by the same identifying characteristic, the sets in the present instance comprising one or a plurality of letters and the identifying or distinguishing marks or characteristics being-in the form of numbers arranged near their letters or as exponents, the same exponent being employed for all of the characters of a set and so located on the type blocks as to appear in a printed line separate from the letters to which the exponents relate, enabling the key letters of a word or name to be automatically coded,

the code appearing as a number above the small letters of the name. Various changes may be made without departing from my invention.

W'hat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a typewriting machine, typebar blocks provided with types for printing a code system comprising a plurality of sets of characters, each set comprising one or more different lower case characters, the characters of each set distinguished by. the same exponent placed to the right of and partly extending above the associate characters.

2. In a typewriting machine, type bar blocks provided with types for printing a code system wherein lower case 6, f, p and 'v are each distinguished by the exponent 1;

ponent 1; the c, g, j, is, s, m and z type bars have their letters distinguished by the exponent 2; the d and t type bars have their letters distinguished by the exponent 3; the Z type bar has its letter distinguished by the exponent 4:; the m andn type bars have their letters distinguished by the exponent 5; and the 0 type bars has its letter distinguished by the exponent 6; said type bars allbeing provided with upper case types corresponding respectively with the lower case types but being Without exponents.

Signed at the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, t February,'A. D. 1924.

STEPHEN H. FARNHAM.

is 26th day of 

